PORTLAND, Ore. – The Western Washington University softball team continued its winning ways, defeating Concordia University 3-2 in 10 innings and 3-0 in a doubleheader sweep in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play on Saturday at Porter Park. 

 

WWU extended its winning streak to seven consecutive games to improve to 12-5 overall and remains perfect at 6-0 in conference play. Concordia opened GNAC play with a pair of losses to fall to 7-10 overall. 

 

WWU opened the doubleheader with a 3-2 victory in 10 innings, with a solo home run by junior left fielder Seli Aholelei proving to be the difference in the Vikings third extra-inning game of the season.

 

Senior Shearyna Labasan returned to the diamond after an early-season knee injury, and picked up both wins in the doubleheader combining to toss 8.2 scoreless innings.

 

Senior first baseman Emily Benson went 3-for-7 in the doubleheader, hitting her fifth home run of the season and had a pair of doubles.

 

The Vikings combined to make only one error in the 17 innings of play, continuing their recent stellar defensive play with only five errors in the last nine games.

 

WWU (12-5, 6-0) continues its Oregon road trip on Sunday facing Western Oregon with the conference doubleheader in Monmouth, Oregon starting at noon.

 

 

The Vikings took the opener of the doubleheader 3-2 in 10 innings, with junior left fielder Seli Aholelei providing the game-winner with a solo home run in the top of the 10^th inning.

 

The game was locked in a pitcher's duel, with WWU's Makinlee Sellevold and CU's Sally Bowles combining to allow only three hits in the first six innings of the game. Sellevold had a no-hitter going through the first 5.1 innings of the contest, retiring 12 consecutive batters from the 1^st through 5^thinnings. 

 

WWU broke through in the top of the 7^th inning when senior first baseman Emily Benson connected on her fifth home run of the season, a 2-run blast to left field.

 

Concordia tied the game with a pair of runs in the bottom of the 7^th inning to force extra innings. After scoreless 8^th and 9^th innings, WWU junior left fielder Seli Aholelei hit a solo home run to left field for the eventual game winner.

 

Senior third baseman/pitcher Shearyna Labasan made her season debut coming back from knee surgery, earning the win with 1.2 innings of scoreless relief. Sellevold recorded a no-decision scattering 4 hits and 2 runs in 8.1 innings. She struck out 9 and walked 3 batters.

 

Benson went 2-for-4 with a double and hit her 36^th career home run to move into 5^th place in GNAC history. Paityn Cyr went 1-for-4 to extend her hitting streak to 15 consecutive games, 4^th-longest in program history.

 

Concordia starter Sally Bowles (3-4) pitched well while recording the loss allowing 6 hits and 3 runs in 9.1 innings.

 

 

 

Senior Shearyna Labasan pitched her fifth career shutout and went 1-for-3 with a run scored at the plate to lead the Vikings to a 3-0 victory in the second game of Saturday's doubleheader.

 

WWU got off to a 2-0 lead through the first three innings and added an insurance run in the top of the 7^th inning to remain perfect at 6-0 in GNAC play.

 

Junior left fielder Seli Aholelei plated the first run with an infield single in the top of the 2^nd inning and Emily Benson drove home a run with a one-out double down the left field line to put the Vikings up 2-0.

 

Labasan scattered 5 hits in her first pitching start of the season, allowing only three runners to reach scoring position in her complete-game effort. She worked out of a jam in the bottom of the 6^th inning, when Concordia recorded back-to-back one-hit singles. The right-hander induced a groundout and struck out Hannah Self to keep the WWU lead at 2-0.

 

Labasan helped her own cause leading off the 7^th inning with a single to left-center field and scored an insurance run on a wild pitch.

 

Concordia starter Mckenzie Smith (3-4) was saddled with the loss allowing 5 hits and 3 runs (1 ER) in the complete-game effort. Smith was also 2-for-3 at the plate to lead the Cavaliers. 

 

 

WWU (12-5, 6-0 GNAC) concludes its Oregon road trip Sunday with a doubleheader against Western Oregon (9-3, 2-0 GNAC) starting at noon. Both games of the doubleheader will stream online and feature live statistical updates with links available at WWUVikings.com/Live.

 

Up-to-date season information, including season statistics, bios, roster, schedule and historical information can be viewed online at WWUVikings.com/Softball. WWU Softball also has a strong social media presence on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, so give them a follow!

 

If you can't make it to Viking Field to watch the home games in person, you can tune in to VikingsTV to catch all the action…all GNAC games, home and road, will stream live and feature live stats at GNAC.tv, with home games also streamed live on YouTube…in addition to being available online, all conference matches are available via the GNAC channel on Roku, Apple TV, Android TV and Amazon Fire TV…live links can be accessed through WWUVikings.com/Live.

 

The WWU softball program is in its 27^th season, with the Vikings posting a winning record in 16 seasons and made four trips to the NCAA Division II Championships. WWU won the 1998 NAIA National Championship to record the school's first ever team national title. Over the last five seasons leading up to the 2019 season, the Vikings recorded a 135-104 (.565) record and won the 2017 GNAC Tournament to advance to the NCAA II West Regional in Monterey, California. In the first game of the regional, the No. 8-seed Vikings beat top-seed and regional host Cal State Monterey Bay for the program's first NCAA Championships victory. Head coach Sheryl Gilmore is in her first season at the helm of the program.